Brad Penny said he almost re-signed with SF Giants this spring, plus other notes

Brad Penny, who had a short but fruitful stint as a Giant starter in 2009, rejoined the team as a reliever Friday and said he almost signed here before spring training. Instead, he accepted an offer to pitch in Japan.

“I figured I could do anything for a couple of years,” Penny said. “That wasn’t true. I didn’t enjoy it there, the language barrier, and I wasn’t having fun playing baseball.”

So now Penny will try to have fun as a right-handed reliever for a first-place team. The Giants purchased his contract from Triple-A Fresno and placed Shane Loux on the 15-day disabled list with a neck injury he sustained while working out before Thursday’s game.

Loux’s injury is not a 15-day thing, but his timing was bad. The Giants had to promote Penny or release him so he could find a big-league job elsewhere.

Manager Bruce Bochy said he will use the 34-year-old in long and middle relief at first “to let him get adusted and see how comfortable he is doing the role.” Penny has made 315 starts in a big-league career that begn in 2000 but only four relief appearances.

“It’s definitely going to be different,” Penny said. “It’s something I’m going to have to learn as I go along. I’m kind of looking forward to it.”

He left Japan when his team, the Softbank Hawks, asked him to throw 120 pitches a game after he threw only 12 spring-training innings because of shoulder tendinitis.

The Giants signed Penny to a minor-league deal after he called Bochy, with whom he is close, and said he was returning to the States. He was happy to accept a relief role and, while he would like to start again, he does not expect to do that here.

Aubrey Huff took grounders and hit on the field for the first time since he sprained his right knee during the Matt Cain perfect-game celebration. He is expected to begin a minor-league rehab assignment shortly after the Giants leave for Washington on Sunday.

Pedro Feliz arrived for this weekend’s 2002 team reunion looking fit enough to play. In fact, he is playing independent ball in Camden, N.J., hoping to catch the eye of a big-league team. He last was in the majors in 2010 with the Astros and Cardinals. He left the Giants after the 2007 season when he signed with Philadelphia.

Benito Santiago, also here for the reunion, will be inducted into the San Francisco-based Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum and Hall of Fame. It’ll happen during an on-field ceremony before Sunday’s game.